Kissinger charged with using double standards in Freeport case
Wednesday, March 1 2000 - 12:53 AM WIB
A senior business analyst charged former U.S. former secretary of state Henry Kinssinger on Tuesday with using double standards in judging the operation of gold and copper mining PT Freeport Indonesia.
Rizal Ramli, a senior analyst at the Econit consulting company, said that it was certainly questionable, if a senior politician like Kinssinger spoke on the behalf of a company known for its massive corruption, cronysim and nepotism practices in the past.
"It is just like a man who spoke about a good morality in his own country but conducted an adultery when going overseas," he said when commenting Kissinger's statement issued following his meeting with President Abdurrahman Wahid.
In the meeting with the Indonesian president, the U.S. secretary of state called on the Indonesian government to honor its contract with copper and gold mining enterprise PT Freeport Indonesia.
Kissinger, listed on the company's website as a member of the board of directors of the U.S. parent company, Freeport McMoRan, warned that any violation of the contract would have an impact on the flow of foreign investment into the country.
Rizal said Indonesia had no moral obligation to respect the contracts issued to a company, with a bad track record like Freeport . "Indonesia is too attractive to be ingnored," he said when commenting Kissinger's statement that Indonesia should respect the contract if it still wanted foreign investors to come.
Freeport, currently being criticized for the massive environment destruction it made on its mining site in Irian Jaya, was known for its closeness with former president Soeharto and his close friends.
Members of the House of Representatives have called on the government to review the contracts, which in many cases, only benefited the gold and copper giants.
Yuli Ismartono, the vice president for corporate communications said that allegations that the company was involved in corruption practices were groundless.
She added that the Attorney General's Office had investigated the matter but did not found any traces that the company had been involved in corruption. (*)